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8/29/2007

Tools-Sandpaper-A pair of medium-size scissors that your mum won't execute you for blunting-A pair of pliers (and if physical strength isn't your forte, you might need to seek assistance in places with this one. The thinner the brass, the easier it'll be to work with)

ProcedureStep 1Somebody asked me for a tutorial on this one, but honestly there's nothing to it! This was an emergency commission - I had four days to make and ship it, so there wasn't time to mess around. I just went down to my local tools outlet (y'know, the kind that you always find on industrial estates and are mostly mail-order for builders and modellers - they have a small shop at one end which is invariably run by a dirty-minded middle-aged man who thinks it's hilarious that there's a girl on his premises). Alternatively, a model shop might have what you need.I bought a sheet of the thinnest brass they had - even then it was thicker than I wanted, but my local model shop only had small sheets and I reckoned I needed about two feet by one foot.Step 2I looked at a whole bunch of Anthy pics until I had a good idea of what the crown should look like, and then I drew a template freehand on a big sheet of paper. I cut it out and played around with it and the hairband, until I got it exactly the right size and it sat right on my head.Note: Don't forget that Anthy's crown isn't flat, each of the curved sections bends back and then comes forward to a 'fold' going down from each point towards her head. See below? Make sure you fold and bend your paper so it looks right. Then I cut out another paper template matching that one, but with three inch-long tabs coming off the bottom. This means when you cut out the brass version, it will have metal tabs you can use to attach it to the hairband. The idea is to attach the crown securely but flexibly to the hairband, so that you can still bend the hairband to fit your head comfortably.

Step 3I drew around the paper template with a thin marker pen to put the outline on the brass, then I cut it out with scissors.Two warnings:a) When you cut brass sheet with scissors, the edges are VERY VERY SHARP, especially at the points of the crown. Please be extremely careful as you're using a lot of force and it's easy to accidentally cut yourself. I was working in a hurry and ended up with lots of little scratches on my hands...b) Your scissors will go blunt and you may get slightly achy hands as it takes considerable force to cut metal.Step 4Once I had the brass cut, the first thing I did was sand the edges down so they weren't sharp, and blunt the points of the crown a little. Then I used a ruler to make a 'fold' in the brass starting at each of the points so that it made the crown shape. This all took about five minutes.

Step 5Then I took the pliers and attached the crown to the hairband by bending the brass 'tabs' around the hairband and squeezing them tight. This was the hardest bit because it's fiddly *and* requires force, which is a really difficult combination. I'm not ashamed to say that I enlisted the help of the owner of the pliers for this bit ^_^ I also put a little glue on the hairband underneath the tabs to stop them from sliding along the hairband.

Step 6Finally, it looked great but I still wasn't happy with how sharp the points were, so I took my smallest gold beads and glued one onto each point with epoxy.

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